TV Review: The Cases of Eddie Drake/Code 3
The Cases of Eddie Drake was a private eye series broadcast on the DuMont network in 1952. The framing device was that psychiatrist Dr. Karen Gayle (Patricia Morison) was writing a book on criminal psychology, and paid Eddie Drake (Don Haggerty) to tell her about his cases. The two were clearly attracted to each other, but Eddie also flirted with the women in his cases.
“Shoot the Works” was the only episode in my DVD collection. A casino has been robbed, with one man killed during the holdup. The robber got away with a diamond watch belonging to a woman who was at the casino, but not with the husband who gave it to her.
Eddie is hired to buy the watch back from the thief, no questions asked. While he attempts to arrange this, Eddie runs into the casino owner, an exiled Russian prince who asks Eddie to find a woman the prince has only seen in a peep show movie. Things get ugly when the peep show girl turns up dead at the rendezvous point where Eddie was supposed to pick up the watch.
A visit by a police lieutenant provides the clue Eddie needs to crack the case. Seems that there was more than one murderer. The writing is only so-so, and the psychological angle in the framing story doesn’t come into the case at all. The most memorable thing in the show is Eddie’s unique looking three wheeled car.
Code 3 was a 1957 series that featured fictionalized cases from the files of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. Richard Travis played Deputy Sheriff George Barnett, who introduced and narrated each episode. At the end of each episode, Eugene W. Biscailuz, the actual sheriff of Los Angeles County, would give a brief message.
The opening is especially interesting from a historical perspective, showing 1950s technology such as teletypes and pneumatic tubes in use in the dispatcher’s office. I watched four episodes.
“The Rookie Deputy” depicts a Czech immigrant going through the deputy training school. He is having difficulty as having been in the Czech Underground during World War Two, and then fighting the Communists, he has a lot of experience the younger trainees don’t. He wants to share this information, but comes off as arrogant, with a chip on his shoulder. In a crisis situation, his knowledge of Hungarian proves vital, and he shows that he’s absorbed American values.
“The Sniper” starts with a man using a rifle to kill random women. A real estate salesman comes up with the idea of using this as a cover to deal with his wife, an art gallery owner. Interestingly, his plan seems to be not so much to kill his wife, as to force her into a dependent position–he’s been driven to jealousy by her being far more successful than he is. His attempts to isolate his wife and exert control over her hit a snag when the sheriff’s deputies notice this crime doesn’t match the sniper’s MO.
“The Man of Many Faces” is about a forger who’s using a clever method to pass phony checks. It turns out he’s an accountant with a terminally ill daughter, and needs the extra money for her treatments, and to pay for a Hawaiian vacation. He’s caught out because he does tax preparations for some of the deputies, and they spot that he partially matches descriptions of the check passer (he used various simple disguises) and his handwriting looks familiar.
By the time the deputies come to arrest him, the accountant’s daughter has passed, and he gives himself up freely as there is no further reason to lie. One of the victims of the check scheme reminds us of the financial costs of crime–it will take a lot of fifteen-cent check cashing fees to get back the eighty-six dollars he paid out.
“The Baxter Affair” takes place at the women’s county jail. One of the women there is awaiting trial on murder (she claims she’s innocent, but it’s one of those “participated in a crime that led to death” things, even though she may not have killed the victim personally.) She discovers that the sheriff’s office has planted a female deputy among the population, presumably to spy on her. The woman then begins a search for the evidence she needs to spot the spy and expose her.
The varied cases give this series interest, but the acting and writing just isn’t up to Dragnet standards. it’s worth looking at for the period piece it is.
